Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 2

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996

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By the first week in March, 1579, lie had reached the entrance to the Bay of Panama. Surfeited with spoils and loaded with plunder it became necessary for him to find as speedy a pas- sage homeward as possible. To return by the way he had come was to invite certain destruc- tion. So he resolved to seek for the fabled Straits of Anian, which were believed to connect the Atlantic and Pacific. Striking boldly out 011 the trackless ocean he sailed more than a thou- sand leagues northward. Encountering contrary winds and cold weather, he gave up his search for the straits and turning he ran down the coast to latitude 38°, where "hee found a liarborow for his ship." He anchored in it June 17, 1579. This harbor is now known as Drake's Bay and is situated about half a degree north of San Francisco under Point Reyes.

Fletcher, the chronicler of Drake's voyage, in his narrative "The World Encompassed," says: "The 3d day following, viz. the 21st, our ship having received a leake at sea was brought to anchor neerer the shoare that her goods being landed she might be repaired; but for that we were to prevent any danger that might chance against our safety our Generall first of all landed his men with all necessary provision to build tents and make a fort for the defense of ourselves and goods; and that we might under the shelter of it with more safety (whatever should befall) end our businesse."

The ship was drawn upon the beach, careened on its side, caulked and refitted. While the crew were repairing the ship the natives visited them in great numbers. From some of their actions Drake inferred that the natives regarded himself and his men as gods; to disabuse their minds of such a false impression he had his chaplain, Francis Fletcher, perform divine service accord- ing to the English Episcopal ritual. After the

service they sang psalms. The Indians enjoyed the singing, but their opinion of Fletcher's ser- mon is not known. From certain ceremonial performances of the Indians Drake imagined that they were offering him the sovereignty of their country; he accepted the gift and took formal pos- session of it in the name of Queen Elizabeth. He named it New Albion "for two causes; the one in respect of the white bankes and cliffes which ly towardes the sea; and the other because it might have some affinitie with our own countrey in name which sometimes was so called."*

After the necessary repairs to the ship were made, "our Generall, with his company, made a journey up into the land." "The inland we found to be farre different from the shoare, a goodly country and fruitful soyle, stored with many blessings fit for the use of man; infinite was the companyof very large and fat deere which there we saw by thousands as we supposed in a heard."* They saw also great numbers of small burrowing animals which they called conies, but which were probably ground squirrels, although the narrator describes the animal's tail as "like the tayle of a rat eceeding long." Before departing, Drake caused to be set up a monument to show that he had taken possession of the country. His monu- ment was a post sunk in the ground to which was nailed a brass plate engraven with the name of the English Queen, the day and year of his arrival and that the king and people of the coun- try had voluntarily become vassals of the English crown. A new sixpence was also nailed to the post to show her highness' picture and arms. On the 23d of July, 1579, Drake sailed away, much to the regret of the Indians, who "took a sorrowful farewell of us but being loathe to leave us they presently runne to the top of the hils to keepe us in sight as long as they could, making fires before and behind and on each side of them burning therein sacrifices at our departure."*

He crossed the Pacific Ocean and by way of the Cape of Good Hope reached England Sep- tember 26, 1580, after an absence of nearly three years, having encompassed the world. He be- lieved himself to be the first discoverer of the country he called New Albion. "The Spaniards," says Drake's chaplain, Fletcher, in his World Encompassed, "never had any dealings or so much as set a foote in this country, the utmost of their discoveries reaching only to many degrees southward of this place." The English had not yet begun planting colonies in the new world, so no further attention waspaid to Drake's discovery of New Albion, and California remained a Span- ish possession.

* World Encompassed.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Sixty years have passed since Cabrillo's visit to California, and in all these years Spain lias made no effort to colonize it. Only the Indian canoe has cleft the waters of its southern bays and harbors. Far out to the westward beyond the islands the yearly galleon from Manila, freighted with the treasures of "Ormus and of Ind," sailed down the coast of California to Acapulco. These ships kept well out from the southern coast to escape those wolves of the high seas-the buccaneers; for, lurking near the coast of Las Californias, these ocean robbers watched for the white sails of the galleon, and woe to the proud ship if they sighted her. She was chased down by the robber pack and plundered of her treasures. Sixty years have passed but the In- dians of the Coast still keep alive the tradition of bearded men floating in from the sea on the backs of monster white winged birds, and they still watch for the return of their strange visitors. Sixty years pass and again the Indian watcher by the sea discerns mysterious white winged ob- jects floating in the waters of the bay. These are the ships of Sebastian Viscaino's fleet. They enter the bay now known as San Pedro and anchor in its waters, November 26, 1602.

Whether the faulty reckoning of Cabrillo left Viscaino in doubt of the points named by the first discoverer or whether it was that he might receive the credit of their discovery-Viscaino changed the names given by Cabrillo to the islands, bays and headlands along the coast: San Miguel of Cabrillo became San Diego, so named for Viscaino's flag ship; San Salvador and La Vitoria became Santa Catalina and San Clemente; and Cabrillo's Bahia de Los Fumos appears on Viscaino's map as the Ensenada de San Andres-the bight or cove of St. Andrew; but in a description of the voyage compiled by the cosmographer, Cabrera Bueno, it is named San Pedro. It is not named for the apostle St. Peter,as is generally supposed, but for St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, whose day in the Catholic calendar is November 26, the day of the month Viscaino anchored in the bay. St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, lived in the third century after Christ. He was beheaded by order of the African proconsul, Galerius Maximus, during the per- secution of the Christians under the Roman Emperor Valerian. The day of his death was November 26, A. D. 258.

Viscaino found clouds of smoke hanging over the headlands and bays of the coast just as Cabrillo had sixty years before, and for centuries preceding, no doubt, the same phenomenon might have been seen in the autumn days of each year. The smoky condition of the at- mosphere was caused by the Indians burning the

dry grass of the plains. The California Indian of the coast was not like Nimrod of old, a mighty hunter. He seldom attacked any fiercer animal than the festive jack rabbit. Nor were his futile weapons always sure to bring down the fleet- footed conejo. So, to supply his larder, he was compelled to resort to strategy. When the sun- mer heat had dried the long grass of the plains and rendered it exceedingly inflammable the hunters of the Indian villages set out on hunting expeditions. Marking out a circle on the plains where the dried vegetation was the thickest they fired the grass at several points in the circle. The fire eating inward drove the rabbits and other small game back and forth across the nar- rowing area until, blinded with heat and scorched by the flames, they perished. When the flames had subsided the Indian secured the spoils of the chase, slaughtered and ready cooked. The scorched and blackened carcasses of the rabbits might not be a tempting tit bit to an epicure, but the Indian was not an epicure.

Viscaino sailed up the coast, following very nearly the same route as Cabrillo. Passing through the Santa Barbara Channel he found many populous Indian rancherias on the main- land and the islands. The inhabitants were ex- pert seal hunters and fishermen, and were pos- sessed of a number of large, finely constructed canoes. From one of the villages on the coast near Point Reyes the chief visited him on his ship and among other inducements to remain in the country he offered to give to each Spaniard ten wives. Viscaino declined the chief's prof- fered hospitality and the wives. Viscaino's ex- plorations did not extend further north than those of Cabrillo and Drake. The principal ob- ject of his explorations was to find a harbor of refuge for the Manila galleons. These vessels on their outward voyage to the Philippine Islands kept within the tropics, but on their return they sailed up the Asiatic Coast to the latitude of Japan, where, taking advantage of the westerly winds and the Japan current, they crossed over to about Cape Mendocino and then ran down the Coast of California and Mexico to Acapulco. Viscaino, in the port he named Monterey after Conde de Monterey, the then Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), claimed to have discovered the desired harbor.

In a letter to the King of Spain written by Viscaino from the City of Mexico May 23, 1603, lie gives a glowing description of California. As it is the earliest known specimen of California boom literature I transcribe a portion of it: "Among the ports of greater consideration which I discovered was one in thirty-seven de- grees of latitude which I called Monterey. As I

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

wrote to Your Majesty from that port on the 28th of December (1602) it is all that can be de- sired for commodiousness and as a station for ships making the voyage to the Philippines, sail- ing whence they make a landfall on this coast. This port is sheltered from all winds, while on the immediate coast there are pines, from which masts of any desired size can be obtained, as well as live oaks and white oaks, rosemary, the vine, the rose of Alexandria, a great variety of game, such as rabbits, hares, partridges and other sorts and species found in Spain and in greater abundance than in the Sierra Morena (Mts. of Spain ) and fly- ing birds, of kinds differing from those to be found there. This land has a genial climate, its waters are good, and it is very fertile, judging from the varied and luxuriant growth of trees and plants; for I saw some of the fruits, particularly chestnuts and acorns, which are larger than those of Spain. And it is thickly settled with people, whom I found to be of gentle disposition, peaceable and docile, and who can be brought readily within the fold of the holy gospel and into subjection to the Crown of Your Majesty. Their food consists of seeds, which they have in abundance and variety, and of the flesh of game, such as deer, which are larger than cows, and bear, and of neat cattle and bisons and many other animals. The Indians are of good stature and fair com- plexion, the women being somewhat less in size than the men and of pleasing countenance. The clothing of the people of the coast lands consists of the skins of the sea wolves (otter), abounding there, which they tan and dress better than is done in Castile; they possess also in great quan- tity, flax like that of Castile, hemp and cotton, from which they make fishing lines and nets for rabbits and hares. They have vessels of pine- wood very well made, in which they go to sea with fourteen paddle men of a side with great dexterity, even in very stormy weather. I was

informed by them and by many others I met with in great numbers along more than eight hundred leagues of a thickly settled coast that inland there are great communities, which they invited me to visit with them. They manifested great friendship for us, and a desire for intercourse;were well affected towards the image of Our Lady which I showed to them, and very attentive to the sacrifice of the mass. They worship different idols, for an account of which I refer to said re- port of your viceroy, and they are well acquainted with silver and gold and said that these were found in the interior."

When Sebastian Viscaino took his pen in hand to describe a country he allowed his imagination full play. He was a veritable Munchausen for exaggeration. Many of the plants and animals he describes were not found in California at the time of his visit. The natives were not clothed in well tanned sea otter skins, but in their own sun tanned skins, with an occasional smear of paint to give variety to the dress nature had provided them. The hint about the existence of gold in California is very ingeniously thrown in to excite the cupidity of the king. The object of Viscaino's boom literature of three hundred years ago was similar to that sent out in modern times. He was agitating a scheme for the colonization of the country he was describing. He visited Spain to obtain permission and means from the king to plant colonies in California. After many delays Philip III. ordered the Viceroy of New Spain in 1606 to immediately fit out an expedi- tion to be commanded by Viscaino for the occupa- tion and settlement of the port of Monterey. Be- fore the expedition could be gotten ready Viscaino died and the colonization scheme died with him. Had it not been for his untimely death the set- tlement of California would have antedated that of Jamestown, Virginia.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER III.

MISSION COLONIZATION-FOUNDING OF SAN GABRIEL.

HE aggrandizement of Spain's empire, whether by conquest or colonization, was alike the work of state and church. The sword and the cross were equally the em- blems of the conquistador (conqueror) and the poblador (colonist). The king sent his soldiers to conquer and hold, the church its well-trained servants to proselyte and colonize. Spain's pol- icy of exclusion, which prohibited foreigners from settling in Spanish-American countries, retarded the growth and development of her colonial possessions. Under a decree of Philip II. it was death to any foreigner who should enter the Gulf of Mexico or any of the lands bor- dering thereon. It was-as the Kings of Spain found to their cost-one thing to utter a decree, but quite another to enforce it. Under such a policy the only means left to Spain to hold her vast colonial possessions was to proselyte the natives of the countries conquered and to transform them into citizens. This had proved effective with the semi-civilized natives of Mexico and Peru, but with the degraded Indians of California it was a failure.

After the abandonment of Viscaino's coloniza- tion scheme of 1606 a hundred and sixty-two years passed before the Spanish crown made another attempt to utilize its vast possessions in Upper California. Every year of this long inter- val the Manila ships had sailed down the coast, but none of them, so far as we know, with one exception (the San Augustin was wrecked in Sir Francis Drake's Bay), had ever entered its bays or its harbors. Spain was no longer a first- class power ou land or sea. Those brave old sea kings- Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher-had destroyed her invincible Armada and burned hier ships in her very harbors, the English and Dutch privateers had preyed upon her commerce on the high seas, and the buccaneers had robbed her treasure ships and devastated her settlements on the islands and the Spanish main, while the freebooters of many nations had time and again captured her Manila galleons and ravished her colonies on the Pacific Coast. The profligacy

and duplicity of her kings, the avarice and in- trigues of her nobles, the atrocities and inhuman barbarities of her holy inquisition had sapped the vitality of the nation and subverted the character of her people. Although Spain had lost prestige and her power was steadily declining she still held to her colonial possessions. But these were in danger. England, her old-time enemy, was aggressive and grasping; and Russia, a nation almost unknown when Spain was in her prime, was threatening her possessions on the northwest coast of the Pacific. The scheme to provide ports of refuge for the Manila ships on their return voyages, which had been held in abeyance for a hundred and sixty years, was again revived, and to it was added the project of colonizing Califor- nia to resist Russian aggression.

The sparsely inhabited colonial dominions of Spain can furnish but few immigrants. Califor- nia, to be held, must be colonized. So again church and state act in concert for the physical and spiritual conquest of the country. The sword will convert where the cross fails. The natives who prove tractable are to be instructed in the faith and kept under control of the clergy until they are trained for citizenship; those who resist, the soldiers convert with the sword and the bullet.

The missions established by the Jesuits on the peninsula of Lower California between 1697 and 1766 had, by royal decree, been given to the Franciscaus and the Jesuits expelled from all Spanish countries. To the Franciscans was ell- trusted the conversion of the gentiles of the north. In 1768 the visitador-general of New Spain, José de Galvez, began the preparation of an expedition to colonize Upper or New California. The state, in this colonization scheme, was represented by Governor Gaspar de Portolá, and the church by Father Junipero Serra. Two expeditions were to be sent by land and two by sea. On the 9th of January, 1769, the San Carlos was despatched from La Paz, and the San Antonio from San Lucas on the 15th of February. The first vessel reached the port of San Diego in 110 days, and the second in 57 days. Such were the uncertain-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ties of ocean travel before the age of steamn. O11 the 14th of May the first land expedition reached San Diego and found the San Antonio and San Carlos anchored there. On the Ist of July the last land expedition, with which came Governor Portolá and Father Junipero Serra, arrived.

On the 16th of July the mission of San Diego was founded, and thus, two hundred and twenty- seven years after its discovery, the first effort at the colonization of California was made.

The ravages of the scurvy had destroyed the crew of one of the vessels and crippled that of the other, so it was impossible to proceed by sea to Monterey, the chief objective point of the expe- dition. A land force, composed of seventy-five officers and soldiers and two friars, was organized under Governor Gaspar de Portolá and on the 14th of July set out for Monterey Bay. On the 2d of August, 1769, the explorers discovered a river which they named the Porciuncula (now the Los Angeles). That night they encamped within the present limits of the city of Los An- geles. Their camp was named Neustra Señora de Los Angeles. They proceeded northward, fol- lowing the coast, but failed to find Monterey Bay; Viscaino's exaggerated description deceived them. They failed to recognize in the open ensenada his land-locked harbor. Passing on they discov- ered the Bay of San Francisco. On their return, in January, they came down the San Fernando Valley, crossed the Arroyo Seco, near the present site of Garvanza, passed over into the San Gabriel Valley and followed down a river they called the San Miguel, and crossing it at the Paso de Bar- tolo and thence by their former trail they returned to San Diego. In 1770 Governor Portolá, with another expedition, again passed through the Los Angeles Valley by his former route, on his journey to Monterey. There, on the 3d of June, 1770, Father Junipero Serra, who had come by sea from San Diego, founded the mission of San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey, the second mission founded in California, and Portolá took posses- sion of the country in the name of the king of Spain. The founding of new missions progressed steadily. At the close of the century eighteen had been founded, and a chain of these mission- ary establishments extended from San Diego to the Bay of San Francisco. The neophyte popu- lation of these, in 1800, numbered fourteen thou- sand souls.

The history of the founding and upbuilding of one of these missionary establishments-San Ga- briel Arcángel-is so intimately connected with that of Los Angeles that I shall devote considera- ble space to an account of its founding, its growth and to its importance as a factor in the subsequent settlement of the Los Angeles Valley.

On the 6th of August, 1771, from the presidio of San Diego, a small cavalcade, consisting of fourteen soldiers and two priests-Padres Cambon and Somero-with a supply train of pack mules and four muleteers, set forth to found a new mis- sion. They followed the route northward taken by Governor Portolá's expedition in 1769. It was their intention to locate on the river Jesus of `the Earthquakes," now the Santa Ana, but finding no suitable location they passed on to the Rio San Miguel, now the San Gabriel. Here they selected a well wooded and watered spot near the river for the site of the new mission. The river San Miguel was also known as the Rio de Los Temblores (the river of earthquakes). Bancroft claims that the Santa Ana River, then known as the Rio Jesus, was the real River of Earthquakes, but both Warner and Hugo Reid call the San Gabriel the Rio de Los Temblores. Reid says, "The present site of the San Gabriel Mission was not chosen until some time after a building had been erected at the old mission, which was to have been the principal establish- ment. The now San Gabriel River was named Rio de Los Temblores, and the building was referred to as the Mission de Los Temblores. Those names were given from the frequency of convulsions at that time and for many years after. These convulsions were not only monthly and weekly, but often daily. The mission brand for marking animals was a T, with an S on the shank like an anchor and entwined cable, to express Temblores. Even after the new San Gabriel was founded no other iron was ever adopted."

A stockade of poles was built around the site selected. A church roofed with bonghs and tule- covered buildings were erected. On the 8th of September, 1771, the mission was formally dedi- cated with the usual ceremonies. The Indians, who at the coming of the Spaniards were docile and friendly, a few days after the founding of the mission suddenly attacked two soldiers who were guarding the horses. One of these soldiers had outraged the wife of the chief who led the attack. The soldier who had committed the ontrage killed the chieftain with a musket ball, and the Indians, terrified by the discharge of firearms, fled. The soldiers cut off the chief's liead and fastened it on a pole at the presidio gate. From all accounts the soldiers were a worse lot of savages than the Indians. The site selected for the planting fields was on low ground. The river overflowed and destroyed their crops the first year. The mission supplies had failed to reach them, and the padres and the garrison were reduced almost to the

*It was named by Portolá's expedition, "Rio del Dulcisimo Nombre de Jesus de Los Temblores," or, the River of the sweetest name of Jesus of the Earthquakes.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

verge of starvation. The excesses and outrageous conduct of the soldiers kept the Indians away from the mission. At the end of the second year only 73 children and adults had been baptized. Such were the inauspicious beginnings of what in later years became one of the most powerful and important missions of Alta California. In the library of the Cathedral of St. Vibiana, of this city, is a register of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, kept by Father Francisco Palou. The record begins with October 9, 1773. In it is given a description of the buildings at the Mis- sion Vieja. I am indebted to thie Very Rev. J. Adam, V. G., for a translation of the record. "The primitive church (of the Mission Vieja) was forty-five feet long by eighteen wide, built of logs and covered with tule thatch. There was a sacristy behind the altar."

"There was a second building, also built of logs, forty-five feet long and seventeen and a half wide, roofed with tules; this house was divided into two rooms by a door of wood."

"The third building, also of logs, was thirty- six feet long by fifteen wide, covered with tules."

"The fourth log building, 36 feet long by 18 feet wide, was used to store seeds and grain. This house had an earthen roof for greater pro- tection against fire. There was also a building 15 feet square, of wood, with an earthen roof. This room was used for a kitchen. Besides these there were nine small wooden buildings, with mud roofs, dwellings for the neophytes. There were two houses of lumber built for the soldiers' barracks."

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Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 2

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 996

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996